Sunday Dawg Chow: Browns news (9/5/21)

Cleveland Browns:

• Greg Newsome II uses discipline, attention to detail to make difficult technique change, earn trust of coaches (Browns Zone) - Greg Newsome II wouldn’t be in line to start Week 1 as a rookie without living a lesson his mom, Crystal, taught him as a child. The No. 26 pick out of Northwestern has earned admiration from teammates and the trust of coaches by taking coaching and quickly applying it with acute attention to detail. The self-discipline was demanded at home in Chicago.
• Consider all the upside of a Cleveland Browns team that should go 13-4 (cleveland.com) - The most surprising thing about last season, in which the Browns won more games than they had in 26 years, was the pedestrian manner in which they accomplished it. That 11-5 felt normal. That leaves lots of room for improvement in 2021.
• When Steelers fan Nick Saban was with Browns, his friends and family rooted against him (Tuscaloosa News) - Nick Saban was the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s. When they played the Steelers, he got about 100 tickets for his friends and family to see the game. The problem? All of the people with whom he grew up, all of his best friends, all of the people with whom he played high school football, they were all Steelers fans.
• Keeping up with ex-Browns around the league (Browns Zone) - Now that the 53-man rosters are set around the league, it’s time to keep up with where some former Browns players from the 2020 season or the 2021 preseason wound up.

NFL:

• How NFL rule changes for 2021 will impact the game (ESPN) - Most of us look at NFL rules as a list of prohibitions. Teams see them differently. For them, the rulebook is a runway toward competitive advantage, and they focus more on what it allows. In 2021, that means figuring out how to best exploit a rule change that imposes new limits on low blocks. It means compiling dossiers on the league office employees who will make replay decisions following the retirement of senior vice president Al Riveron. And it means getting an understanding of how officials will use in-stadium replay officials in real time for help in making certain calls, per a new rule.
• Former Steeler, broadcaster Tunch Ilkin dies after fight with ALS (triblive.com) - Tunch Ilkin, the former broadcaster and tackle whose hard-nosed play on the football field was matched by his kindness and generosity off it, died Saturday after a year-long fight with ALS, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced. He was 63.
• Highest-Paid NFL Players 2021 (Forbes) - With the regular season set to kick off Thursday, a record signing bonus and hefty endorsement deals have helped football’s top stars cash in mightily despite a free-agency clamp-down.